Heavy showers could bring more flooding woes for parts of rain-battered Wales this Christmas, as the country braces itself for one of its wettest years in history.

Heavy showers could bring more flooding woes for parts of rain-battered Wales this Christmas, as the country braces itself for one of its wettest years in history.

The Environment Agency (EA) said widespread showers meant many places remain on flood alert despite persistent rain expected to ease over Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

David Jordan, the EA’s director of operations, said: “Although the rain is set to ease a little in the coming days, the ground is still very wet and river levels remain high, so we would ask people to keep up to date with the latest warnings and stay prepared for flooding.”

A flood warning - meaning flooding is expected - is in place for the River Ritec in Tenby and the lower Dee Valley between Chester and Llangollen.

Six flood alerts - meaning flooding is possible - are in place for the Lower Teifi, downstream of Llanybydder, the River Lugg in Powys, the rivers Wye and Monnow in Monmouthshire, the Upper Teifi, rivers in South Pembrokeshire and the Upper Severn in Powys and its tributaries.

Across the UK, the rain continued to cause travel disruption yesterday heaping misery on millions of Christmas travellers on road and rail networks. A series of accidents on major highways also added to the travel chaos.

Rail commuters using the West Coast line faced reduced services while First Great Western (FGW) passengers travelling between London and South Wales were affected by flooding.

Despite the persistent rain easing-off over the coming hours, heavy showers were expected overnight with the Met Office issuing yellow weather warnings for much of South Wales.

The Welsh National meet at Chepstow Racecourse on Thursday has been postponed until Saturday, January 5, because of a waterlogged track. But the Boxing Day meet at the Ffos Las course in Carmarthenshire is due to go ahead, with going described as "heavy".

Meteogroup, the weather division of the Press Association, said showers were likely to continue across most of the UK today, providing little respite for areas where the ground is already saturated.

Gareth Harvey, a MeteoGroup forecaster, said: “The rain will become confined to North East and north Scotland overnight, but a fresh band of showers will move into western parts of the UK and the south during Christmas Day.

“They will not be persistent but could be heavy and will not help the flooding issues.”

Most parts of Wales will experience showers at some point during the day with the unsettled weather continuing into Boxing Day.

Britain is now set for one of its wettest years ever, the Met Office said.

The UK’s average rainfall in 2012, excluding December, is 1,202mm – placing it 13th in the list of wettest years since records began in 1910.

Forecasters said December’s deluge of rain meant that this year was now likely to finish among the country’s highest rainfall totals on record.

The year 2000 remains the UK’s wettest year, with an average rainfall of 1,337.3mm.

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